This invention relates generally to a mechanism for feeding small parts to an installation station and more particularly to a feeding mechanism for feeding small connector receptacles to an installation station of an automatic insertion machine.
In the prior art small connector elements, such as miniature spring female sockets, have been supplied in loose piece fashion to an installation station by means of a feeding mechanism including an inclined track and a cup-shaped reservoir positioned at the top thereof. The inclined track includes a pair of rails with a slot therebetween which extends from the reservoir to the installation or work station. The small connectors are generally cylindrical in shape, open at one end and having an enlarged diameter, rim-like cover or cap at the other end. The cylindrical portion passes in the slot between the two rails with the rim-like cap riding on the top surface of the two rails. In this manner the connectors are supplied from the cup-like reservoir to the work station. In such prior art mechanism, the reservoir is attached rigidly to the track with a window in the side wall of the reservoir so that the slots and the two rails in effect are continuous through the side of the reservoir and along the bottom of said reservoir. Thus, the bottom of the reservoir, in effect, contains an extension of the tracks and forms a straight, continuous slot down which the connectors can slide, by a combination of vibration and gravity.
The slot in the reservoir is positioned radially with respect to the cup-like or cylindrically-shaped reservoir. A rotating brush is also located in the reservoir and is made to continuously sweep across the reservoir floor, thereby pushing the connectors into the slot. The brush, which usually has its axis in the center of the bottom of the cylindrical reservoir, can also be moved in an oscillatory fashion so that it sweeps back and forth across the slot, thereby more effectively brushing the connectors into the slot and also removing those connectors which have not positioned themselves in the proper attitude within the slot.
One of the problems encountered with the prior art structure lies in the fact that the extension of the slots from the tracks into the cup lies in a single common plane. The angle of the slot is, in prior devices, about 40.degree., and it has been found that jamming of the connectors in the slots within the reservoir occurs occasionally as the connectors are vibrated or brushed into the slot. Once the connectors are properly positioned in the slot, however, and pass through the window in the wall of the reservoir and begin their journey down the track, jamming very seldom occurs.
Another difficulty of prior art devices appears to arise because the slot within the reservoir is radial with respect to the circularly-shaped bottom of the reservoir, and the fact that the brush rotates around an axis located in the center of the reservoir bottom. Thus, the bristles of the brush pass over the slot substantially perpendicular to the direction of said slot. It has been found that such a movement of the brush does not remove jammed connectors with sufficient effectiveness. Furthermore, the perpendicular motion of the brush bristles perpendicularly across the slot does not tend to push the connectors down the track and towards the work station. It has been found that most automatic insertion machines on the market can install the socket connectors faster than they can be delivered to said work stations by currently known feeding mechanisms.